Transfer mechanism for calculating machines



Nov. 27, 1962 H. GANG TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 29, 1960 Nov. 27, 1962 H. GANG 3,065,908

TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES Filed March 29, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. HERMAN GANG ATTORNEY Nov. 27, 1962 H. GANG TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 29, 1960 a uu m nu.

H l l Il ATTORNEY Nov. 27, 1962 H. GANG TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES Filed March 29, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG.4

PIC-3.5

Zia/257291" INVENTOR. HERMAN GANG I I /I wa /Ow ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fifice 3,065,9ti3 TRANSFER MECHANiSh/i FER CALCULATENG MACHINES Herman Gang, Morris Plains, NJ assignor to Monroe Calculating Machine Company, @range, NJL, a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 29, less, Ser. No. 13,3 lairns. (Cl. 235-137) This invention relates to tens transfer mechanism for calculating machine registers and particularly to means for effecting simultaneous tens transfer in two or more successive orders of a register.

The tens transfer mechanism of the invention is applicable to calculating machines wherein each registering cycle includes a phase of digital registration and a subsequent tens transfer phase. During digital registration, in such a machine, the digital actuators are operable to enter selected amounts into the register numeral wheels, and if a wheel passes additively through 9, the tens transfer mechanism is conditioned to add one unit in the next higher order wheel. This may appropriately be termed a primary transfer operation.

If each of a series of register wheels stands at 9 registering position and the next lower order wheel is moved additively through 9, the transfer mechanism will move each of the wheels of the series to O. In this instance, the transfer in each successive higher order wheel of the series results from a transfer occurring in the next lower order wheel. Such a transfer therefore may appropriately be termed a secondary transfer operation.

Obviously there would be no problem in effecting primary transfer operations simultaneously for the reason that the transfer mechanism is conditioned prior to operation by movement of the numeral wheels during digital registration. Such is not the case, however, in a secondary transfer because the operation is dependent on the occurrence of a transfer in the next lower order. It has therefore been usually expedient to effect the transfer operations successively from lower to higher orders. This successive operation however inherently extends over a considerable portion of a registering cycle, and it would therefore be most desirable to effect simultaneously all transfer operations in each cycle. Such simultaneous operation would obviously permit greater registering speed and provide more time in a machine cycle for control operations in the performance of various calculating operations.

It is accordingly the primary object of the invention to provide an improved simultaneous tens transfer mechanism.

A further object of the invention is to prevent accumulation of lost motion during simultaneous ocurrence of tens transfer in a series of register wheels.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tens transfer mechanism which is particularly adapted for high speed rotary operation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be evident from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section of the machine showing the tens transfer mechanism including the primary conditioning means therefor in disabled position and the secondary conditioning means in enabled position.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary exploded perspective of the three lowest orders of the register and the associated tens transfer mechanism with the parts in the positions of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a mechanical schematic of the register, the tens transfer mechanism and associate controls with the parts shown in a single plane.

stresses Patented Nov. 27, 1962 FIG. 4 is a right end view showing the digital and tens transfer actuator drive means and the tens transfer mechanism including the primary conditioning means therefor in enabled position and the secondary conditioning means in disabled position.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing operation of the transfer unit including the transfer slides with respect to a cycle of registration.

The register comprises an ordinal series of numeral wheels 1. The register is of the type from which totals are taken and printed, and therefore the numerals are not displayed on the wheels.

Each numeral wheel 1 includes a wheel gear 1a which is engaged by an intermediate drive gear 2. Suitable detent means 4 (FIGS. 1, 2) engage gears 1a to locate wheels 1 in their respective registering positions. Intermediate gears 2 are driven by rotary differentially settable digital actuators 3 which are unidirectionally operable in additive clockwise direction and which effect subtraction by compiemental addition in well-known manner. invention is not concerned with digital value selection means for actuators 3 nor with their control in addition and in subtraction by complemental addition since these operations are old and well known in the art.

Digital actuators 3 have a first idle phase of operation in each cycle, as seen from FIGS. 1, 5, wherein differentially settable teeth 3a are rotated to position for engagement with intermediate gears 2. During this idle phase, certain restoring operations for the devices of the invention are performed and also certain machine control operations with which the invention is not concerned are performed. After the phase of digital registration and teeth 3a are rotated from engagement with gears 2, the cycle of actuators 3 is concluded with a second idle phase during which the devices of the invention are operable to effect simultaneous tens transfer.

Digital actuators 3 are splined on a shaft 5 (FIGS. 1, 3, 4) which is driven one revolution clockwise per machine cycle by a drive train (not shown) which may be hand or motor operated. Fast on shaft 5 is a gear 6 which meshes with a gear 7 of the same diameter fast on a shaft 8. Accordingly, shaft 8 is driven counterclockwise at a one to one ratio with shaft 5.

Tens transfer actuating means for each wheel 1, except the lowest order wheel, includes an elongated gear 10 fast on shaft 8 and engaged by an actuator gear 11 of the same diameter rotatably and slidably mounted on a shaft 12. Accordingly gear 11 will be driven clockwise at a one to one ratio with gear 10 and is adapted for longitudinal adjustment on shaft 12 while maintaining engagement with said gear 10.

Gear 11 is provided with a left hub portion 11a (FIGS. 2, 3) which carries a tens transfer tooth 11b and with a right hub portion 11c which is of reduced diameter with respect to hub portion 11a. Normally gear 11 is held toward the right by a downwardly extending arm 15 with transfer tooth 11b to the right of intermediate gear 2 and with hub portion 11c engaging a partition plate 14. Arm 15 has a longitudinal slot at its upper end through which extends a finger 16a (FIGS. 1, 3) of a transverse plate 16 which is secured to a bracket 17 of the machine framing. Accordingly, arm 15 is rockably mounted at its upper end and is adapted to be raised and lowered on finger 16a. The lower free end 15a of arm 15 extends toward the right in the form of a toe and engages hub portion 11a of gear 11. A forwardly extending end of a torsion spring 18 mounted on the machine framing engages the left side of arm 15. Arm 15 therefore is urged counterclockwise (FIG. 3) to hold gear 11 toward the right with rub portion 11c engaging partition plate 14 and tens transfer tooth 11b to the right of intermediate gear 2.

The

. full cycle position,(FlG. l),

provided to adjust gear 11 left on shaft 12, against the urge As later described, means is longitudinally to the of arm 15, to bring intermediate gear 2 of numeral wheel 1 for a primary transfer operation.

Primary transfer conditioning means for actuator gear of each successive higher order numeral wheel 1 is gear 11 comprises a slide 19. Slides 19 are mounted respectively in pairs of forwardly of gears 11 and above Slides 19 are adapted to be set from a forward disabled position (FIGS. 1, 2, 3) to a rear enabled position (FIG. 4) and are located in either of these positions by a common coil detent spring 9 which engages suitable notches at the lower edges of said slides.

A cover plate 21 is secured, by means not shown, to the upper edges of channel member and thus retains slides 19 in their respective slots. Furthermore, upstanding front and rear lugs 19a, 19b of slides 19 are adapted to engage respectively the front and rear edges of plate 21 thereby limiting the movement of the slides. Plate 21 has a leftwardly extending lug 21a and a rightwardly extending lug 21b (FIG. 3) which slidably engage slots in the machine framing. Consequently, the member 20 and plate 21 is longitudinally adjustable with respect to transfer actuator gears 11.

A compression spring 23 urges unit right. However, when actuators 3,

20, 21 toward the 11 are in normal the high portion of a cam 24 fixed on shaft 8 engages a roller 25 at the right end of plate 21 thereby holding unit 29, 21 toward the left against the urge of spring 23 as shown in FIGS. 3, 5. Furthermore, with the parts in normal position, any slides 19 which were set rearwardly, as later described, to enabled position during the previous registering cycle will remain in enabled position.

Cam 24 is rota-ted to move its high portion from engagement with roller 25 during the first part of a cycle of actuators 3, 11 and at which time actuators 3 are operating in their first idle phase. Spring 23 therefore will be effective to adjust unit 20, 21 toward the right from the position of FIG. 3. Furthermore, during the idle phase of actuators 3, means, later described, is operable to restore any enabled slides 19 forwardly to disabled position.

With unit 20, 21 in rightward position, slides 19 will be in a vertical plane to the right of hub portions 11c of 11 of numeral wheels 1 respec- Furthermore, the the vertical plane of the upper arm of a vertically disposed lever 27 which is controlled by, the next lower order numeral wheel 1 as most clearly shown in FIG. 2. Dur- 4 ing the registering phase of digital actuators 3, the low portion of cam 24 will remain engaged with roller 25 and therefore slides 19 will remain in the planes of the respective levers 27 which are controlled by the associated wheels 1 as follows.

Levers 27 are spring biased counterclockwise and accordingly a nose 2711 at the lower end of each lever is urged against the periphery of a rightly extending hub portion 111 (FIGS. 1, 2, 4) of the associated wheel 1. Hub portion 1b is provided with a transfer lug 10 which, upon passage of wheel 1 from the 9 registering position of FIGS. 1, 2 to the 0 registering position of FIG. 4 will engage and pass beyond nose 27a thereby momentarily rocking lever 27 clockwise as shown by the dot-dash lines of FIG. 4. Therefore, if, during digital registration, wheel 1 passes from 0 to 9, lever 27 will engage the front of the associated slide 19 and set said slide rearwardly to the enabled position of FIG. 4. This will locate the rear end of slide 1% inwardly of the periphery and to the right of hub portion of transfer actuator gear 11 of the next higher order wheel 1.

At the end of the registering operation of actuator gears 3, and during thefinal idle phase of operation of said ears, the high portion of cam 24 will again engage roller 25. Thus unit 21 21 will be moved to the left. Accordingly, all slides 39, enabled as previously described, will engage the right sides of hub portions 110 of the associated transfer gears 11 respectively and move said gears to the left against the urge of spring biased arms 15. Movement of gears 11 to the left will locate transfer teeth 11b thereof in the planes of intermediate gears 2 of the associated wheels 1 where they will be idly operable until near the end of the cycle at which time they will engage said intermediate gears 2 thereby entering one unit in each of the wheels 1.

As previously noted, all slides 19 which are enabled and operated as described above will remain in enabled position at the end of the registering cycle, and means for disabling the slides is operable during the first idle phase of digital actuators 3 in the next registering cycle.

The means for restoring slides 19 to disabled position comprises a pair of yokes 33, one of which is shown in FIG. 4, having U-shaped rear ends embracing shaft 8 adjacent its respective ends. Each yoke 30 includes a forwardly extending arm at the end of which is a pin 31 slidably engaging a guide slot in the machine framing. A roller 32 is mounted on each yoke 30 forwardly of shaft 8 and spring means urges each yoke 3t? rearwardly to engage its roller 32 with a cam33 fast on shaft 8'. When actuators 3, 11 are in normally full cycle position, rollers 32, engage the low portions of cams 33 (FIGS. 4, 5) and therefore yokes 34) are held in a rearward position.

A bail 34 extends transversely above slides 19 to the rear of upstanding lugs 19a and is pivotally mounted at its ends on pins 31 of yokes 3d. Normally bail 34 is located by gravity in a lowered position with its front edge below the tops of lugs 19a. During the first idle phase in a cycle of digital actuators 3, cams 33 will be operable to move yokes 3t and hail 34 forwardly. As a result, the front edge of bail 34 will engage lugs 19a of any enabled slides 19 thereby restoring said slides forwardly to disabled thereof will engage a fixed pin 35 thereby rocking said bail clockwise to raise its front edge above lugs 1%. Cams 33 Will hold the parts in this position during digital registration. Bail 34 therefore will not interfere with the setting of slides 19. During the terminal idle phase of digital actuators 3, the low portions of cams 33 will again engage rollers 32. Bail 34 therefore will be restored rearwardly to normal lowered position.

It will be recalled that the tens transfer gear 11 of each numeral Wheel 1 is normally held to the right in disabled position by a spring urged arm 15 pivotally restrained at its upper end and having its lower end 1522 engaging hub portion 11a of said gear 1i. Furthermore, arm is adapted to be raised and lowered, and is normally in raised position (FIGS. 3, 4) with lower end 35a to the right and above hub portion 110 of transfer gear 11 of the next higher order wheel 1. if, however, the lower order (the first said order) wheel 1 stands at 9 registering position (FIGS. 1, 2), means is provided to lower arm 15.

Means for lowering arm 15 comprises a crank 3'7 having common pivotal mounting with lever 2'7 of the lower order wheel. Crank 3''] is spring urged clockwise and has a nose 37a at the end of a rearwardly extending lower arm which nose rides the periphery of lower order wheel 1. The end of an upper rearwardly extending arm 37b of crank 37 engages a slot intermediate the ends of arm 15. When lower order wheel 1 is in any one of the 8 registering positions (FIG. 4), crank 37 will be held counterclockwise against the urge of its spring thereby holding arm 15 in raised ineffective positions with respect to hub portion 11c of transfer gear 11 of the higher order wheel 1. However, if lower order wheel 1 stands at 9 registering position (FIGS. 1, 2), a notch 1a in the periphery of said wheel will engage nose 37a of lever 37 thereby permitting the lever to be rocked clockwise by its spring to lower arm 15 and bring end 15a radially inward of the periphery of hub portion 110 of transfer gear 11 of the higher order wheel. End 15a therefore will be in position to transmit leftward movement from gear 11 of the lower order wheel to gear 11 of the higher order wheel. Consequently if transfer gear 11 of the lower order wheel is adjusted toward the left to position for a primary transfer operation, gear 11 of the higher order wheel will likewise be adjusted toward the left for a secondary transfer operation.

From the above it will be seen that if a series of wheels 1 stand at 9 registering position and gear 11 of the lowest order wheel of the series is adjusted to transfer position, transmission ends 15a of arms 15 associated with the wheels respectively will each be operable to adjust gear 11 of the next higher order wheel to position for a secondary transfer operation. Also, it will be seen that all transfer operations (primary and secondary) in a cycle will be effected substantially simultaneously as transfer gears 11 are driven simultaneously and transfer teeth 11b thereon have substantially the same angular relationship. Furthermore, there can be no accumulation of lost mo tion for the reason that all transfer operations, either primary or secondary, are each effected by an individual transfer actuator.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood that the invention is to be restricted only as necessitated by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. in a register including an ordinal series of register wheels, 2. transfer actuator for each wheel longitudinally adjustable of said register from an idly operable position to a driving position with respect to said wheel, primary transfer conditioning means including a carrier reciprocably operable longitudinally of said register, a primary transfer conditioning member for the actuator of each whee sett-able on said carrier from a disabled position to a position operable to adjust said actuator to driving posi tion upon reciprocation of said carrier, means operable to set the primary transfer conditioning member for the actuator of each wheel to adjusting position if the next lower order wheel is moved from a first to a second given registering position, secondary transfer conditioning means including an interponent for transmitting longitudinal adjusting movement to the actuator of each wheel from the actuator of the next lower order wheel and settable from a disabled to an enabled position, means operable to set the adjusting interponent for the actuator of each wheel to enabled position if the next lower order wheel is moved to said first given registering position, and drive means for operating all of said actuators simultaneously.

2. The invention according to claim 1 wherein said actuators are rotary and are mounted in axial alignment longitudinally of said register.

3. The invention according to claim 2 wherein said primary transfer conditioning member for the actuator of each wheel comprises a slide settable on said carrier from a disabled position outwardly of said actuator to an enabled position inwardly and to the right of said actuator.

4. The invention according to claim 2 wherein spring operated means is provided to hold each actuator normally in said idly operable position.

5. The invention according to claim 4 wherein spring operated means for holding each actuator in said idly operable position comprises said interponent for transmitting longitudinal movement therefrom to the next higher order actuator.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,065,908 November 27, 1962 Herman Gang It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, line 70, for "rub" read hub column 5, line 19 for "positions" read position Signed and sealed this 5th day of November 1963.

(SEAL) ittest:

EDWIN Lo REYNOLDS ERNEST W. SWIDER nesting Officer A0 L i ng Commissioner of Patents UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No 3,065,908 November 27, 1962 Herman Gang It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, line 70, for "rub" read hub column 5, line 19, for "positions" read position Signed and sealed this 5th day of November 1963.,

(SEAL) Arrest:

EDWIN L. REYNOLDS ERNEST W. SWIDER Attesting Officer Ac ting Commissioner of Patents 

